Most of my friends who enjoy yoga believe in its health benefits. I've never tried it myself but I do remember as a child being warned that it might be a gateway for the demons. There was a popular 30-minute exercise show on TV at the time that featured yoga positions. My mom enjoyed it for a while until the JWs decreed it demonic.

In the HuffPo article Jackson alleges that yogic meditation empties the mind, and Satan is ready and waiting to fill that emptiness. That was precisely the "logic" that the Watchtower used when forbidding yoga to its followers.

. . . all the gods were stories we told the children to make them behave. ~ Thoros of Myr (Game of Thrones, Episode 3:06)

(06-06-2013 06:51 AM)Scully Wrote: Most of my friends who enjoy yoga believe in its health benefits. I've never tried it myself but I do remember as a child being warned that it might be a gateway for the demons. There was a popular 30-minute exercise show on TV at the time that featured yoga positions. My mom enjoyed it for a while until the JWs decreed it demonic.

When I was still an Xian I was involved in a Christian martial arts dojo, and my "master" would chide me for doing yoga because of its reputed demonic influences. I found that somewhat ironic given that other Xians said the same thing about martial arts due to their Eastern origin and philosophical background...sigh.